Current rates are now below fleet operating costs! It's official!

Most of the loads I do from 3 pl never make it to a board. Why? Cause the work needs a little bit of extra care and trusted carriers are on the ball. Between that and my dedicated freight it works out well. I have my conservative numbers on dedicated. Sometimes it’s 50% a week but lately it’s been 25% Look there’s only a handful of guys here that are killing it. Why are some going out of business and others expanding with new equipment? What is happening between the two sides? It takes allot of capital to run for years. Overhauls, tows, insurance, etc.. are costly. If you don’t make enough it will catch up with you. If your not pulling in the required amount for future expenses…
I am not bound by brokers. The ratio and income works out. If it changes, and it always does, I will adapt. I am thinking of the future and buying more equipment so I can take on more capacity, which opens doors. I have learned that loadboards are not a secure place to count on. I am going to do everything I can to take the freight before it goes in it. If that means seek out customers, so be. Less than two years and have had two customers. I have learned from my small experiences that serving choosy customers pays much more overtime than what you will do in a load board. Go ahead, fight over the 2dollar a mile freight. If one complains about a problem (such as options of 80 cent s mile freight and is upset) and finds no solution, why even be a business. Leave it to one’s that care and be a company driver.

 

If it were me and I were gonna be an owner/operator, you run the truck how you want to run it but I would be trying my best to run specialized and non-competitive freight, at least not nearly as competitive as dry-van/reefer. Some things that come to mind are running jet fuel for local airports, or if you feel like doing the paperwork, military freight (ammo requires teams however, from memory).

That's just me though, the thing I've learned the most about trucking is that there's a lotttttt of different sub-genres to the job and there's at least one niche that fits everyone, which are all very different. I'm sure everyone here would agree with that.

 

Everyday more immigrants are coming from all over the world. Until they get a grasp of English and a foothold at home. They will be bumping docks and driving. If that’s all you specialize in, future looks bleak. It’s all a numbers thing.

 

When you're right you're right.

I mean I just look at it more from the business perspective because if you're O/O that's all it is anyways, revenue taxes and paperwork and numbers. Truck's just a blinged out tool. Why do what everyone else and their pet monkey is doing when you can literally spec out a truck to do ANYTHING you'd ever need or want?

I mean good grief, all you need for a HM/Tank endorsement is a quick trip to the TSA office and around $200 investment and just a little bit of time to study for each test (HM test at the DMV isn't even that hard once you drill it, Tanker as well). I read somewhere once, don't know if it's BS or not, that out of all the CDL drivers in the US only around 1-2% have all endorsements or X endorsement. Crazy to me to just price yourself out of upward mobility even as a company driver for no good reason...

Not to talk bad about you, by the way. Because like I said earlier we all got our different styles of how we work and how we run. Because really at the end of the day it's not about trucking. It's about what trucking BUYS and the QoL it affords you compared to other jobs. If you can have enough "you-time" at the house and not have to worry so much about the bills and the IFTA and the truck payments and the maintenance and the cleaning... then it's worth it.

 

You're a company driver, right?

 

hah, I have all the existing endorsements and used them for like 0,01%

 

Yes. I don't think that changes anything about the greater point I was trying to make though.

Sure, when I was at the reefer joint I was working at, they'd always tell me I would get one whole more cent a mile for a HM load (lol, lmao), and that's a total joke and not worth the endorsement at all. But I'd rather have them all if I decided to do, say, LTL at Old Dominion, compared to what I was currently doing at the time and got sick of it. Or hauling fuel for gas stations.

Trucking's all about adaptability and maximizing your options, what's wrong with that?

 

It changes everything.

 

I supervised one of this countries biggest ordnance removal jobs in the US. 7 teams full of personnel finding tons of live ordnance and dealing with fire, ems, contractors, military, government regulators, etc..keeping things from getting to expensive or out of hand. One of the most stressful jobs I’ve done. Chaos every stinking day. Then a few months later I was a company driver. Never underestimate people. That guy pulling a swift trailer may have allot of business sense.

 

Haz mat endorsement is cheap and easy to get. Insurance for a 1 truck guy hauling haz mat in specialized equipment is not. Not to mention the cost of specialized equipment. So it sounds great in theory but in all likelihood is a pipedream unless you have the resources and intend to get a fleet in on something like that. You can lease on to a company that has all the contracts and specialized equipment but then guess who ends up taking the cream off the top. So yeah haz mat can be a niche, and maybe not impossible for a determined 1 truck operator, but there's a reason you always see at a minimum small fleets specializing in that.